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MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 12, 2013Deonte BurtonDavid CarterMalik StoryLAS VEGAS, NEVADA Wyoming – 85 THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with the University of Nevada. Coach, if we could start with some general comments on today's game. COACH CARTER: I thought we played hard. I thought we had a lot of good stops in the first half to be able to get a lead. I thought the second half they really methodically beat us in the first half to get that momentum, get their tempo that they play at. They did a great job of snatching the momentum from us in the second half. Made a late run, but just came up short. THE MODERATOR: At this time we'll open it up for questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Malik, did you see a difference in what they tried to do defensively in the second half? MALIK STORY: Yeah, I noticed that they were just on the paint, you know, moving us around. At the end of the shot clock they were just throwing it down to Leonard or Nance. We had some good contested, made some big shots, down the line of the game. That was the key to the game for them. Q. How are you feeling that your career at Nevada is wrapped up? MALIK STORY: I haven't really thought about it yet. I'm still kind of just taking it all in. It's been a rough season for me ‑ for actually all of us. I think I'll reflect on it later. Right now, it still stings from the game. Q. Deonte, did it feel at halftime you had the game moving at the tempo you wanted? DEONTE BURTON: Yeah, I would say so. We were getting stops on defense. That allowed us to run. Second half I think they pounded it inside, made some tough shots. Enabled us to run so we could get out on the break. Q. Defensively what was the biggest change going into the second half? DEONTE BURTON: I think they were just trying to be more physical in the second half. Just bumping, a lot of hand checking, things like that. We had to finish over. Q. Malik, I know you guys made a run. Early in the second half you couldn't knock down shots. They weren't falling or... MALIK STORY: I think we missed a couple easy ones. Then they had a couple contested. We didn't knock down a couple shots in the beginning. In the game you might have a drought. That's all, we had a drought for seven minutes. We picked it up, but it just wasn't enough. Q. Deonte, looking at your future, do you anticipate being back next year? What's the process you go through now? DEONTE BURTON: I'm not really even thinking about next year right now. Just still thinking about this game. Next year, I got plenty of time to think about that. Right now I'm just going to think about this game. Q. Is that something you're going to look into, though? DEONTE BURTON: Like I've said, I'm not going to really talk about that right now. I'm just going to think about this game, this loss. Q. Malik, did this game mirror some of the games you saw earlier this season? MALIK STORY: I wouldn't say so. I thought we fought the entire game. When we get down, we get down, we let people keep rolling over us. I think the last few weeks, we have just been fighting, but it was a little too late for us as a whole. This game showed a little more fight. It was a close game the whole entire time. We could have easily been down by 15. Had a comfortable game for them the entire time. We made them fight, each team fight, and they just out‑worked us in the end. Q. A matter of you getting down too early in the first half? MALIK STORY: I would say so. A couple key trips, missing key rebounds. Just different things on the defensive end, we had a couple of breakdowns. When you do that, you just can't come back from that. Q. Deonte, you pulled within two towards the end. Can you talk about that play. DEONTE BURTON: I think he baited me to throwing that pass. He was sagging off at first and shot as I threw it. I didn't think he would be quick enough to get there, but he was. He stole it. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student‑athletes and open it up for questions for Coach Carter. Q. You mentioned trying to get it inside the second half. COACH CARTER: They went a little bit high‑low. Did little bump cuts to get them the ball. The biggest difference, they had zero offensive rebounds first half as well. Second shots hurt us as well. That's going inside, scoring in the paint the second half. Q. I think it took about seven minutes for you to get a basket. You were hanging in with free throws. Wanting to change things up defensively or shots not falling? COACH CARTER: I think it's a combination, when they're scoring, we never got any rhythm. We talked about getting stops, getting in transition. I thought the first half we were able to get in transition a little bit and get a little better rhythm. I didn't think they did anything different, I think we had some opportunities missed. We didn't execute as sharp as we did at the close of the first half. Q. Was it just a case of them being more physical down low in the second half and taking advantage of your front court? COACH CARTER: I think so. Again, I mentioned the rebounding in the second half. They got seven offensive rebounds. They had zero the first half. I think that was a big difference. A shot went up, they were able to get second and third shots. I think that dictated the tempo. I think that gave them momentum in the second half. Q. Is that one of the biggest lessons from the season, how much you have to address your front court? COACH CARTER: Yeah, front court, got to get more depth, get more guys that can score. In this conference, we learned that you can't just stop the top two guys or three guys. Every team has a lot of guys that can hurt you. For us, we have to address those issues in terms of rebounding and defending inside. Q. Was Jerry close to playing or pretty much a no‑go? COACH CARTER: He was no‑go. He was really sore. It's his shooting hand, so he can't flex his wrist so much. Q. How do you think losing him affected your team? COACH CARTER: It gives you another rebounder, another defender, another option to go to offensively. Without him, we played pretty much the three guards, didn't run all of our sets that we had because we had the three guards in. Q. How do you think Coleman played in his second start? COACH CARTER: I think he played well. Compared to last Saturday, a little more relaxed. Still aggressive. I thought he played very well. Q. Obviously the freshmen Coleman and Cole Huff, what were your thoughts of their play? COACH CARTER: I expect them to really grow up. I told them the second half the conference that they're sophomores, not freshmen. I thought both men have really matured in the last second half of the conference. I expect those guys to make a big leap next year going into the sophomore year. Q. Do you see someone filling in for Malik? COACH CARTER: We have a kid, Mike Perez, who transferred in. I think he'll step in. He was a double‑digit scoring for UTEP. We expect him to step in and give us some offensive punch like Malik. Q. After you had pulled within two points, you had three turnovers in 25 seconds. What happened? Were you pressing because time was running short or got a little careless? COACH CARTER: I thought Deonte threw an ill‑advised pass to Burris, we wanted to set an on‑ball screen, only down two. We wanted him to keep the ball, get in the lane and score, make something happen. I think after that our guys got a little down because that went from 2 to 5 real quick. I think the next two times we really just was careless with the ball. Q. Do you like how Deonte played today? COACH CARTER: Yeah, he was aggressive from start to finish. He put a lot of pressure on the defense because he gets in the lane as well, shoot the three. I thought actually his last two games were very good, being aggressive from start to finish. Q. 39 free throws for Wyoming, a season high against you. What did you think of the officiating overall? Do you think the Wyoming player may have stepped out of bounds with 10 seconds to go? COACH CARTER: This game has nothing to do with officiating. We had a foul at the end. I think they shot about 10 free throws because of the fouls. That had nothing to do with the game. We missed 10 free throws. We turned the ball over. When you do those things, you're putting yourself in position not to win a game. We missed 10 free throws. Deonte went up to the line to shoot three, only made one. Those kind of things, we control that. The referees had no control of this game. They did a great job. They can't see everything. But we can't look at that and say that's the reason why we lost. You look at the stats, you know why we lost. Q. Looking forward, the process with Deonte, he has a big decision to make. What is the process going to be like? How are you going to be involved with that? COACH CARTER: I think we have to look at what the NBA people are saying. They have the ultimate say of where he may fall if he does decide to come out. Talk to he and his family. I think that's the process we've always taken here just to find out where you are. Make a good decision based on what they say. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. COACH CARTER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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